Keith Deller
| Keith Deller | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Nickname | The Feller |
| Born |
24 December 1959 Ipswich, England |
| Darts information | |
| Playing darts since | 1972 |
| Darts | 75g Target Keith Deller |
| Laterality | Right-handed |
| Walk-on music | Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream |
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |
| BDO | 1983-1992 |
| PDC | 1992-2007(Founding Member) |
| BDO majors - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Winner 1983 |
| World Masters | Runner Up: 1984 |
| PDC premier events - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Semi Final: 1998 |
| World Matchplay | Semi Final: 1998 |
| World Grand Prix | Quarter Final: 1999 |
| UK Open | Last 32: 2006 |
| Other tournament wins | |
| Tournament | Years |
| Double Diamond Masters Unipart British Professional |
1983 |
| Updated on 11 February 2008. | |
Unipart British Professional
WDF World Cup - Team
1983
1987
1983
Keith Deller (born 24 December 1959 in Ipswich) is a former professional English darts player who won the Embassy World Professional Darts Championship in 1983. He was the first qualifier ever to win the championship and remains one of the youngest champions in history. For his world championship win, Deller used 18-gram spring-loaded darts, later banned for tournament play but now legal again. He no longer uses these darts.
Deller is the manager of two-time PDC World Champion Adrian Lewis.
Deller's victory over Eric Bristow in the tournament by 6 sets to 5 was probably the biggest upset in the history of the championship. He also beat world number 3 John Lowe in the quarter finals and defending champion and world number 2 Jocky Wilson in the semi-final to become the only player in history to defeat the world's top three ranked players in the World Championship. The champion's prize money in 1983 was £8,000.
His checkout of 138 to clinch the trophy is amongst the most memorable in darting history. Bristow had left himself 50 to stay in the match, but decided to throw for single 18 to leave double 16 instead of a more difficult attempt at the bullseye. Deller then hit treble 20, treble 18, double 12 for the title, and even to this day commentators often refer to 138 as the "Deller checkout" if a player is left with that score.
Despite a meteoric rise to World Champion, his career results failed to maintain that level. On the defence of his world title, he lost in the first round to Nicky Virachkul, and he only won three further matches in the Embassy World Championship in subsequent years. He did win the British Professional Championship in 1987, but generally his world ranking continued to fall, and he even failed to qualify for the World Championship between 1989 and 1993.
Deller was one of the players who broke away from the British Darts Organisation in 1992 and joined the WDC, now the PDC. This saw him gain some more television exposure, and he did produce a few resurgent performances to reach the semi finals of the 1998 PDC World Championship and also the semi finals of the 1998 PDC World Matchplay. Deller dropped out of the top 32 of the PDC's World Rankings around 2005 and therefore has to attempt to qualify for their major tournaments – which he failed to do for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 PDC World Championships. He now competes much less on the circuit, including around half-a-dozen UK Open Regional events during 2007, preferring to perform in more lucrative exhibition matches with fellow legend players such as Bristow and Lowe.
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Wikipedia